Windows 10 1809 adoption rate is slow. And that’s good!

Gregg Keizer has his usual thorough review of the situation: No matter how you slice it, adoption of the latest version of the last version of Windows is going at a snail’s pace:

According to statistics gathered by AdDuplex… Windows 10 October 2018 Update – 1809… had been installed on just 6.6% of all Windows 10 systems by year’s end. That was a small fraction of the 53.6% powered by 1709 – Windows 10’s second feature upgrade of 2017 – at the close of that year.

I think that’s great. Microsoft’s showing some long-overdue restraint in forcing Win10 users onto the next version. We saw repeated bloodbaths on the forced upgrades last year. Maybe this year we’ll seem some sanity return to the Win10 scene.

People are fretting over the delay in 1809 and how that’ll impact the delivery of the next-next version of Win10, code named “19H1.” I think it’s been obvious for quite a while that MS will let the next version slide until much later in the first half of 2019 — thus the “H1” part of 19H1 — and that the decision to do so was made more than six months ago.

I hope, nay pray, that this means our every-six-months upgrade treadmill is coming to an end.

Time will tell, but it’s one more hopeful sign that Microsoft may not end up killing Windows. Maybe.

MS-DEFCON 2: Microsoft’s already yanked four patches. Best to verify Auto Update is turned off

The holidays are over, but the Grinch is still on the loose. Make sure your machine is locked down.

Computerworld Woody on Windows.

Merry (Orthodox) Christmas!

Քրիստոս ծնավ և հայտնեցավ: Մեզ և Ձեզ մեծ ավետիս:

Did you know that Eastern Orthodox and Coptic Christians fast for 40 days before Christmas — which falls on December 25 on the Julian calendar?

AskWoody Plus coming soon

I’m having trouble getting the credit card payment processing connected. PayPal is working, but it’s triggering a “recurring payment” that expires after 1 occurrence.

Computers. You gotta love ’em.

Hang loose. Enlightenment approaches. Or, at least a little bit of bug catching.

Microsoft yanks buggy Office 2010 non-security patches

This just in from Günter Born...

Microsoft has yanked all four of this month’s Office 2010 non-security patches. None of these are currently available in the Microsoft Update Catalog:

Update for Microsoft Excel 2010 (KB4461627)
Update for Microsoft Office 2010 (KB4032217)
Update for Microsoft Office 2010 (KB4032225)
Update for Microsoft Office 2010 (KB4461616)

The KB articles are still out there, but they now say:

After you install this update, you may experience difficulties in Microsoft Excel or other applications. To resolve this, uninstall the update by following the instructions in the “More information” section.

This update is no longer available.

There are instructions for manually uninstalling the patches.

Japanese-language sites are all lit up with warnings about the patches clobbering Excel. Microsoft’s mealy-mouth “experience difficulties in Microsoft Excel” doesn’t say much, but the Japanese language posts certainly do. For example, @odsyeu on the iromame-beans.jp site says (translation by Google):

After installation, program stop error now appears when opening the Excel file.

You gotta wonder who tests this stuff.

As Born says:

This is the 3rd or 4th attempt from Microsoft to establish the Japanese calendar thing. In November 2018 Updates for Office 2010 were been pulled, and in December 2018 we also had Office 2010 updates for Japanese calendar.

Whotta mess. But you’re OK because you haven’t installed any January patches yet, right?

January 2019 non-Security Office Updates have been posted

The January 2019 non-Security Office updates were released Wednesday, January 2, 2019. They are not included in the DEFCON4 approval for the December 2018 patches. Unless you have a specific need to install them, you should wait until Susan Bradley (Patch Lady) approves them and any problems have been reported.

Office 2010

Update for Microsoft Excel 2010 (KB4461627)
Update for Microsoft Office 2010 (KB4032217)
Update for Microsoft Office 2010 (KB4032225)
Update for Microsoft Office 2010 (KB4461616)

Office 2013

Update for Microsoft Project 2013 (KB4461560)
Update for Skype for Business 2015 (KB4461557)

Office 2016

Update for Skype for Business 2016 (KB4461586)
Update for Microsoft Excel 2016 (KB4461600)
Update for Microsoft Office 2016 (KB3203480)
Update for Microsoft Office 2016 (KB4032230)
Update for Microsoft Office 2016 (KB4461435)
Update for Microsoft Office 2016 (KB4461533)
Update for Microsoft Project 2016 (KB4461587)
Update for Microsoft Visio 2016 (KB4461531)

There were no non-security listings for Office 2007 (which is out of support).
Office 365 and C2R are not included.
Security updates for all supported versions of Microsoft Office are released on the second Tuesday of the month (Patch Tuesday).

UPDATE: As of January 4, 2019, the four January 2019 Updates for Office 2010 (msi version) have been pulled by Microsoft and are no longer available for download. If you have problems with the Office programs, Microsoft recommends uninstalling the updates.

An update on the Windows Secrets/AskWoody transformation

We’ve been busy over the holidays….

I hope to have the new Plus Membership routine up and working by tomorrow. Once we’re set for Plus donations (remember, you get to choose how much), I’ll post instructions, then slowly dismantle the advertising on AskWoody, and keep my fingers crossed.

Tracey Capen is working furiously on the first AskWoody Plus Newsletter, which is on schedule for an early Monday morning release. All of the original crew is back — Brian, Susan, Fred and Tracey — and we have some original surprises afoot as well.

Once again, sit tight. The transition won’t happen overnight, and the first few days (weeks? months?) are bound to be overwhelming, at least on this end. There’s a dynamite tech team pulling this through, and the software foundation’s rock solid.

If we need you to do anything, we’ll let you know.

The transition won’t be easy, but the results will be worth it. Guaranteed.

Upgrading from Win10 1803 to 1809 may break the built-in “Administrator” account, but you probably aren’t affected

Two good reports over the weekend about a newly-acknowledged bug in the Win10 1809 upgrade sequence.

Günter Born: Windows 10 V1809: Upgrade deactivates Build-In Administrator

Martin Brinkmann: Windows 10 version 1809 upgrade could invalidate Administrator account

Both articles describe a Japanese TechNet “Network & AD support team” official post that describes how upgrading from 1803 to 1809 may “invalidate” the built-in account called “Administrator.”

Ends up, there’s very little chance that your system will get bit by the bug, unless you have  manually activated the built-in account called “Administrator.” It’s an elusive beast.

When you set up a new PC, the installation sequence prompts you to create an administrator account — you probably have one with your name (or the name of the person who set up your machine, or the PC manufacturer’s name) on it. That account has all of the normal “administrator” level permissions.

At the same time, the installation sequence automatically creates a second account, called “Administrator,” that has all permissions. But the installer hides that account by default.

Few people enable the account called “Administrator.” It’s considered a security risk — for good reason. You can invoke the genie by playing with a Group Policy, modifying the Computer Management/Local Users and Groups/Users setting, or by a command line. No, I won’t show you how to do it.

If you’ve never enabled the “Administrator” account, you don’t need to worry about the bug. If you have enabled the “Administrator” account, do yourself a favor and disable it.

If the only account on your PC with administrator privileges is the one called “Administrator,” the upgrade should go through without killing it, according to the MS Japan post.